The Pine River-Backus School Board will hold a special public meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13, to discuss options for this year’s operating levy.

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Under the 2013 Omnibus Tax Bill, the Pine River-Backus School Board was granted the legal authority to increase its operating levy from $1.02 per student up to as much as $300 per pupil unit without voter approval.

PR-B Business Manager Jolene Bengtson, school board member Chris Cunningham and school board chair Sandy Poferl attended a training meeting July 23 in Bemidji to learn more about these changes.

Bengtson also received a report estimating the cost of a full increase in the operating levy. The report has been given to the school board, and information from the report will be presented at the Aug. 13 meeting.

Currently, PR-B has approximately 1,000 pupil units. According to the report, if the board approves increasing the levy to the full $300 per pupil unit, the school could raise an additional $303,080 in revenue.

Of that increase, 43 percent would be in state aid, while 57 percent would come from property taxes.

For a typical $150,000 market value property, yearly property taxes would increase by $47. For a $200,000 market value property, that amount would be $62 per year.

After graduating high school in 2004, I attended Central Lakes College in Staples, MN for 2 years where I got a diploma in Communication Art and Design. I then transfered up to Bemidji State University in, you guessed it, Bemidji, MN. In the spring of 2009, I graduated from BSU. Then in the fall of 2009 I got a job at Echo Publishing, a sister company to the Brainerd Dispatch.